Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

[Twilight]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

So when do the character sheets of these characters go up? I'm quite interested in seeing the character sheets for these people, particularly the super smart ones.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

I suppose, but then in my games I prefer to transcend the genre a bit. Not every woman has to have D-cups, not every man a dazzling smile. There are overweight heros. Individuals with high Comeliness often have problems because they are so attractive.

 

It enriches the roleplaying in my opinion.

 

I certainly agree with this in many cases; and after all, Bouncing Boy of the Legion of Super-Heroes is one of my all-time favorites, but then again, being more than a bit fat myself, I tend to sympathize more along those lines than others.

 

One thing I do like to include in my games is a bit more realism, at least in terms of lasting consequences and so on, but let's face it -- a game with people flying through pure will and firing beams of energy from their eyes isn't exactly the height of realism.

 

What it comes down to is that I like to strike a happy medium for my games. For example, I've always felt Marvel was closer to cyberpunk -- too dark, grim, and unrelentling hopeless for my taste. On the other hand, I've thought DC was too much the other way...not enough examination of the impact of superhumans on society, not enough acknowledgement of past events, and so on. (That was true up until the point I stopped reading mainstream comics, anyway, about 15 years ago. The things I've read about DC's Marvelization the past 6 or 7 years hasn't thrilled me, either.)

 

So my idea style of game is sort of a half-way between the Marvel & DC approaches. I suppose you could call it "Silver with a strong streak of Bronze."

 

On the other hand, one of the conventions of the genre I do like is the fact most of the main characters are good-looking; while I don't object to a hero or other main character being ugly, there should be a reason for it.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Wow. Well done. Verra nice indeed.

 

Thanks muchly.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

That's pretty cool. Very nice work there.

 

 

EDIT: "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Dr. Anomaly again."

 

Dang.

 

But I do appreciate the thought.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Well done and Repped. Good to see you again.

 

Thanks, Chad. It's good to be back.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

I have to admit, a yearbook format book would make an awesome way to present a Teen Champions campaign setting.

 

Seniors get full page write-ups and are worth more points. Juniors and Sophemores gets half page write-ups and are worth decent points. Only the Freshmen class officers get write-ups, the rest get brief descriptions.

 

Various Clubs "reveal" the school. The faculty section is the GM Notes.

 

Have the yearbook itself be the yearbook of one of the seniors and splatter signatures and messages throughout the entire book. You could have some sort of evil yearbook comment from a villain here and there.

 

As I mentioned in my reply to Steve's post, SS, I think that would be a great way to handle the format...that way you could have a lot of characters in it, but wouldn't bulge the book to the thickness of a phone book. Nice idea!

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Awesome Job! I love the fact that you used real photos for each person. Fantastic!

 

Thanks, Wolven. It was a lot of work (about two weeks of obsession, more or less) but worth it, I think. Originally I wasn't going to do the traditional students, but the project got a bit out of hand (as mine often do, when they become the focus of a manic focus) and in the end I decided to go ahead and do the traditionals anyway, taking advantage of the manic focus while I could.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Where did you find the pictures? I can usually find pictures for adults' date=' but sometimes I am afraid of what I might find if I tried to do a search for teen models.[/quote']

 

Most of them came from various modeling sites, several of those being European. If you're interested, PM me and I'll send you the web addresses. Most of those modeling sites, and several of the specific pictures, were found by my friend kephry (Paladine's wife) as she put a lot of time and effort into finding those things.

 

Like you, we ran into a lot of the sorts of things we didn't want when we tried searches for teen models. Eventually what we ended up doing was going to legitimate modeling sites -- not ones that mentioned teens in specific -- and then looking through stuff to see if they had any people that looked like they could pass. I freely admit that not all of the pictures I chose work perfectly for the age group they're supposed to be, but I worked with what I had.

 

I found a lot more pictures, many of them with faces that fit better than the ones I used, that I couldn't use. Most of them because they showed too much skin to be valid yearbook-style photos: guys shirtless, girls in bikinis, and so on. Another problem with a lot of otherwise good pics was the models were posed in...well...obviously posed shots, or were posed seductively (pulling open the neck of their shirt a bit, undoing buttons on a blouse, etc.).

 

While I normally don't mind finding shots like that, finding a large number of pics of regular people, dressed in regular clothes...well, it was a lot more diffucult than I anticipated! It got actively irritating when I kept finding "modeling" sites that were nothing but thinly-disguised adult picture sites. Even then, a lot of the legitimate European modeling sites had nude photos of their models (naturally enough).

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Hear, Hear! People like attractive characters in thier TV shows, movies, and comic books, so why not in games? I can be ugly in real life. In my games I want to be larger than life.

 

My game group has been "bodycasting" as we call it, for years. It adds a visual depth to the game that even custom artwork can't match. Describing characters as real people allows you to take advantage of the players prejudices and preconceptions too; if you describe and NPC as beautiful, the players have to take your word for it, but if you cast that NPC as a real actor then the players can make up thier own minds how thier characters would react.

 

I find it promotes good roleplaying.

 

I've done that with various gaming groups over the years, too, but never with such a large body of characters at once. That was why for the most part I ended up going with modeling photos of 'ordinary' people, and not known actors and so on. (The two exceptions I can think of in this cases are Stephen Strait ["Warren Peace" from Sky High, who I used for Nightbreed] and Christina Ricci [who I'm going to be using for Twilight].)

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

So when do the character sheets of these characters go up? I'm quite interested in seeing the character sheets for these people' date=' particularly the super smart ones.[/quote']

 

It may be a little bit; while I have basic notes about these characters (since they are NPCs in the Teen Champions game I'm running) I don't have full write-ups for them yet.

 

There are full write-ups for...let's see...about 16 of them, in the "12 Days of Christmas" thread by Super Squirrel that I referenced earlier. The reason I didn't post those already (since obviously I have) those full write-ups) is that they were written up as 100 point characters and no particular active point caps; in order to make them conform to the parameters I'm using for the Teen Champions game, I need to re-write them as 200 point characters with active point caps of around 30-40 points.

[Twilight]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

No rush Doc, just wanted you to know how much I was anticipating the write ups of the characters in question is all.

[SteveBerman]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Hear, Hear! People like attractive characters in thier TV shows, movies, and comic books, so why not in games? I can be ugly in real life. In my games I want to be larger than life.

 

My game group has been "bodycasting" as we call it, for years. It adds a visual depth to the game that even custom artwork can't match. Describing characters as real people allows you to take advantage of the players prejudices and preconceptions too; if you describe and NPC as beautiful, the players have to take your word for it, but if you cast that NPC as a real actor then the players can make up thier own minds how thier characters would react.

 

I find it promotes good roleplaying.

 

 

When I submit a story to a serious marketplace,, they would most likely refuse it if I had eveyrone beautiful. So I refuse to do so in my campaigns.

[SteveBerman]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

I certainly agree with this in many cases; and after all, Bouncing Boy of the Legion of Super-Heroes is one of my all-time favorites, but then again, being more than a bit fat myself, I tend to sympathize more along those lines than others.

 

One thing I do like to include in my games is a bit more realism, at least in terms of lasting consequences and so on, but let's face it -- a game with people flying through pure will and firing beams of energy from their eyes isn't exactly the height of realism.

 

What it comes down to is that I like to strike a happy medium for my games. For example, I've always felt Marvel was closer to cyberpunk -- too dark, grim, and unrelentling hopeless for my taste. On the other hand, I've thought DC was too much the other way...not enough examination of the impact of superhumans on society, not enough acknowledgement of past events, and so on. (That was true up until the point I stopped reading mainstream comics, anyway, about 15 years ago. The things I've read about DC's Marvelization the past 6 or 7 years hasn't thrilled me, either.)

 

So my idea style of game is sort of a half-way between the Marvel & DC approaches. I suppose you could call it "Silver with a strong streak of Bronze."

 

On the other hand, one of the conventions of the genre I do like is the fact most of the main characters are good-looking; while I don't object to a hero or other main character being ugly, there should be a reason for it.

 

Heh, I do love discussing genre assumptions and deciding how they affect readership; we do it all the time in my writing workshop. I'll volunteer to play an average schlub in any game. I regret the main character being 'pretty' in my first novel now. It breeds unreasonable expectations on romance.

 

And btw, nice job with the structure of the yearbook. Very clever.

[Kirby]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Job well done. Though I must say I must control myself when looking at sophomore Lyndsay Giraldi. Must...control...self.... Time...to change...page....

 

 

 

 

On a side, if there is to be another Teen Champions book, there needs to be serious proofreading done on it. TC's proofreading could be considered atrocious.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Heh, I do love discussing genre assumptions and deciding how they affect readership; we do it all the time in my writing workshop. I'll volunteer to play an average schlub in any game. I regret the main character being 'pretty' in my first novel now. It breeds unreasonable expectations on romance.

 

And btw, nice job with the structure of the yearbook. Very clever.

Thanks and all that.

 

A few years ago, when I was going to be playing in a Middle Earth game, and everyone else was gearing up to play an elf or a High Man (a Dúnadan), I opted to play a Dunlending...a Low or Common Man; a woodcutter by trade, and anything but beautiful. I had a lot of fun with that character.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Job well done. Though I must say I must control myself when looking at sophomore Lyndsay Giraldi. Must...control...self.... Time...to change...page....

As has been noted before in some NGD discussions, girls these days seem to look "mature" earlier and earlier. But for the record, I agree. But I'd also rather keep any more discussion thataway down in the NGD.

[transmetahuman]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

When I read the posts asking where to find model pics (especially of average-looking folks), the first thing I thought of was myspace.com - profile sites like that have tons of pics of normal teens and twenty-somethings, and no (or very few) nudie shots to sort through. As long as you're using the pics for a limited-audience, unpublished work like this, I don't think it'd be illegal or unethical to use them (but I'm no copyright lawyer).

[freakboy6117]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

very cool got to say though i was disappointed not to see some of the character sheets the fantastic 404 screen made up for it

[input.jack]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Incredible work, there, Doc. Great job!

 

As far as the "all supers look good" topic, one thing to consider for people promoting "average looking" supers is that the very lifestyle of a superhero is going to promote physical fitness,a nd physically fit people are more attractive. The only "overweight supers" in comics are those whose powers directly link to their shape. Matter Eater lad, Big Bertha (and her size is variable), and people like that. Characters like the Thing arent overweight, just differently structured.

 

Just something to keep in mind.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

As long as you're using the pics for a limited-audience' date=' unpublished work like this, I don't think it'd be illegal or unethical to use them (but I'm no copyright lawyer).[/quote']

Both actually. And website's are considered Published Material.

 

But then, when has that stopped a gamer

 

don't make any money from it and you usually fly below the radar though.

[transmetahuman]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Both actually. And website's are considered Published Material.

 

But then, when has that stopped a gamer

 

don't make any money from it and you usually fly below the radar though.

Hrmm. Guess I made a bad assumption based on all the places online I've seen it done, then. Thanks for the warning. Alright, I'll say it might be illegal, but *I* wouldn't consider it unethical; not for something like this.

 

Why are pics from model sites different, then?

[radioKAOS]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Great stuff.

 

Would love to see the character write-ups, or even just a 'main powers' write up for each character.

 

Or even a Marvel style stat write up...

 

Physical: 1-10

Mental: 1-10

Training [Type]: 1-10

Power [Type]: 1-10

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

very cool got to say though i was disappointed not to see some of the character sheets the fantastic 404 screen made up for it

Thanks. Though as I noted about 16 of the 52 or so non-traditional students already have write-ups, it's as 100 point characters with no real active point cap on their powers, instead of 200 point characters with a 30-35 active point cap. In other words, they need to be completely re-written. I can't say how soon I'll have those done, but I will post a notice here whenever I get a write-up done & linked up. How's that?

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

very cool got to say though i was disappointed not to see some of the character sheets the fantastic 404 screen made up for it

Oh, a P.S. -- since some of those characters are ones that appear in the Teen Champions book, I naturally won't be posting write-ups for them. And even though my versions aren't the book versions (I practically never run a published character as they appear in the published write-up) I'm not going to step on the author's, or HERO Games', toes by putting up a modified write-up.

 

Those that have full write-ups in Teen Champions already are:

 

Chain Lightning

 

Flicker

 

Impact

 

Trance

 

Proteus (though in Teen Champions he's called "Putty")

 

 

I put 11-14 non-traditional students in each grade level, instead of the 5 or so they do in Teen Champions, simply because I wanted a larger population of superstudents.

 

Some of the others I used are listed only with a brief description in Teen Champions (such as Diva, for example) but not a full write-up. In those cases I probably will post a write-up eventually, as the only thing the characters share in common is the 'codename' -- the normal ID is different, the powers are usually different, and so on.

 

By and large, though, most of the non-traditionals are mine. I just wanted to let people know why some of them will never see write-ups from me posted to the website. Hmmm...perhaps I should point the links from those characters to a page that states a write-up can be found in Teen Champions, and suggest anyone interested should pick up a copy of the book...?

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Ravenswood Academy Yearbook

 

Incredible work, there, Doc. Great job!

 

As far as the "all supers look good" topic, one thing to consider for people promoting "average looking" supers is that the very lifestyle of a superhero is going to promote physical fitness,a nd physically fit people are more attractive. The only "overweight supers" in comics are those whose powers directly link to their shape. Matter Eater lad, Big Bertha (and her size is variable), and people like that. Characters like the Thing arent overweight, just differently structured.

 

Just something to keep in mind.

Thanks, input.jack.

 

And the Legion fan in me insists on pointing out that Matter-Eater Lad was only fat for a part of his career, and that was because of an unfortunate side-effect from a villain trying to kill him with a particular energy weapon...it wan't a direct or usual effect of his power. On the contrary, Tenzil was usually shown as being very fit and in excellent physical shape.